Where in the conference world is VolunteerMatch?
With summer approaching (and the weather in San Francisco actually matching up to the season for once), and the VolunteerMatch Client Summit just a day away, I thought it would be a great time to update you on the conferences we’ve been to so far this year and where you can meet up with us over the next few months.
We’ve been on the road spreading the word about VolunteerMatch, our services, and why volunteering is important on a personal and a professional level.
Here’s a recap of where we’ve been over the past few months and a sneak peek of where we will be this summer:
Where We’ve Been
April
We were excited to have a strong presence at NTC this year, from working with the NTEN staff to coordinate their Day of Service, to throwing the #NTCSFParty pre-conference bash, to presenting and attending at the conference.
Jennifer Bennett, our Senior Manager of Education & Training, and Molly Trezise, our Senior Product Manager, hosted a session on our Listing Wizard. Our Online Communications Manager, Shari Ilsen, moderated a panel discussion about successful uses of technology tools that are available to nonprofits for volunteer engagement.
Robert Rosenthal, Vice President of Communications & Marketing for VolunteerMatch, delved into the world of corporate/nonprofit relationships with a panel of best practice experts on getting your organization ready for pro bono volunteers. Last, but certainly not least, our President, Greg Baldwin, had the pleasure of joining other industry leaders for the closing plenary of the conference to talk about nonprofits and innovation.
Seth Thompson, our East Coast Solutions Director, attended Charities@Work along with approximately 150 corporate contributions professionals. This year’s summit topics included effective employee engagement, building the business case for your programs and engaging employees in volunteerism, and giving and sustainability.
Seth was also able to attend the Business Civic Leadership Center’s 2012 National Conference this year (jet-setter!). Attendees included leaders in community affairs, partnerships, corporate philanthropy and social responsibility, to name a few. This year’s agenda focused on corporate citizenship and the future of America.
May
Greg Price, our Executive Vice President & Chief Services Officer, was invited to speak at the Utilities Roundtable, hosted by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy and PEPCO Holdings. He was part of an expert panel discussing “Activating the Full Spectrum of Employee Engagement.” Other panelists included Anne Wallestad, Chief Operating Officer at BoardSource, and Farron Levy, President at True Impact.
Where We’ll Be
May
After taking our annual Client Summit on the road to Las Vegas and Chicago over the past two years, we’re bringing it home to our beautiful City by the Bay, San Francisco. Maybe I’m a little biased, but this year’s Summit is going to be our best one yet!
Our keynote presenters include Carol Cone, Global Vice Chair of Edelman Business & Social Purpose talking about the “Radically Engaged Business,” and Meg Garlinghouse, Head of Social Impact for LinkedIn talking about how social media is changing the way companies engage employees in volunteerism. We’ll also be joined by many other thought leaders, including the Director of Communications from the next conference on this list…
Casey Brennan, Marketing & Insights Manager, and Dianna Smith, Midwest Solutions Director, will be attending CMF this year. Casey will be giving a presentation as part of the Six Big Ideas in 60 Minutes panel with five other cause marketing leaders. She’ll be focusing on “Employee Engagement as a Cause Testing Ground,” highlighting the importance of getting your employees on board before trying to engage your consumers – so you have a cohesive message and story.
June
Casey Brennan (another jet-setter!) and Business Development Manager, Lauren Wagner (that’s me!), are heading to Sustainable Brands this year. This will be VolunteerMatch’s first time at this conference, and we’re looking forward to connecting with other experts in the field about employee engagement and its importance to a company’s CSR and sustainability practices.
If you’ll be there, make sure to check out the CauseWay to hear from a group of awesome organizations about ways your company can get involved. This is bound to be a great conference with phenomenal opportunity to learn, just take a peek at the partial attendee list!
VolunteerMatch will be heading to Chicago for NCVS this year. We have a great group going from both our corporate and nonprofit services teams. Robert Rosenthal will be back in the presenter’s chair, leading a workshop on content strategy with NTEN’s Holly Ross and Amy Sample-Ward during the Social Media for Social Good preconference on Sunday, 6/17.
Also on Sunday, during the Summit on Advanced Volunteer Engagement preconference, our President, Greg Baldwin, will be presenting a plenary, “Re-Thinking Leadership in a High Tech Age”, and Jennifer Bennett, Senior Manager of Education & Training, will be talking about social media and volunteer engagement.
That about wraps it up for the summer months! If you’re going to any of these conferences and would like to meet up with any of our staff that are attending to learn more about VolunteerMatch and what we do, send us an email and we’ll get you connected.
I hope all of your summer plans are as exciting as ours, and we can’t wait to see you at these great events!
